


Eye of the Beholder

by EldritchRaven



Category: El Tigre, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera
Genre: Family, Friendship, Later Romance, minor depictions of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23580175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EldritchRaven/pseuds/EldritchRaven
Summary: Years pass by, and with it knowledge of who are and who you decide to be come into full focus. Perhaps with a little effort as well, villains can have normal lives.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

He sat on the edge of the tallest skyscraper in all of Miracle City, the chaos of bustling streets below him giving him an ambiance of surprising calm as he stared at the stars in wait. It was Tuesday night, the night they usually meet to just sit and chat and feel like two normal people for once in lives full of chaos and madness. He was unsure if the other would show, a fight earlier was a brutal one with the supposedly ‘neutral’ El Tigre, and had taken a lot out of his skeletal friend. He held promises close, however, and so there he was in wait for the great grandson of gods to show.  


The stars were beautiful, hanging in their stillness but twinkling as if trying to speak. He smiled as he watched them and the clouds that drifted by. It was nights like this that reminded him why he was in this world. A world that was so cruel to him and others, but still gave a secret beauty that he could admire with ease.  


“All the screams below you and you do not even look.” A voice rang up, the crunching of the skyscrapers gravel reaching up to his ears, telling him of his friend coming to his side.  


“ It is all just noise.” He said with a smile, looking up at the figure now beside him. Django of the Dead nodded as he smirked down at him.  


“Room for one here, then, Deigo?” The skeleton asked, though he was already moving to sit.  


Diego Chipotle Jr. looked back over the city, folding his robotic arm into his lap as he observed the streets he could see from their vantage point. “ I take it the fight you had with a certain cat earlier didn't leave you bruised too much, then?”  


“El Tigre can only dream of taking me down, Peps. Besides, even if he destroyed my guitar I would still try to make it here.”  


“Lucky me that you care so much, Skelly.” Diego smirked, looking to the avenue just below them, screaming citizens running away from the near-by bank told him all he needed to know. “Should we worry about finding a place that will not have heros swarming in the next couple of minutes?”  


“Naahh. It just looks like it is El Oso, so I doubt any of the goodies will look around for other villains. Even then, we have seen how little foot traffic the top of this scraper gets.” Django leaned back, looking over the city scape as Diego continued to eye the commotion. He magnified his vision on the street below, getting a better look at the police blockade that had formed, and the aforementioned villain standing at the top of the bank's stairs.  


“You would think he would be better at this after all these years.” Diego scoffed, watching as El Oso charged down the stairs at the police that surrounded him.  


“ You would think the police would start carrying bear spray just for him.” Django looked in the direction of the fight, “ Give me a play by play, would ya’?”  


“El Oso just charged at the police, who are firing taser shots at him. Most of them are missing, but the ones that are hitting are not doing a whole lot…” Diego sighed, “ And the police chief wonders why they have to rely on superheroes all the time. When was the last time the police actually took a villian down on their own?”  


“ Didn’t they recently take down that evil doll thing that was summoned from the deepest pits of hell?”  


“ Nnnno, I think Cosmic Cleopatra just turned it into ash by giving it a glance- Oh! Speaking of needing hero help, guess who just arrived?”  


“White Pantera?”  


“ Eeyup, followed by El Tigre. They just spun El Oso around and El Tigre now has him in his weird chain arm...things… Man, what I wouldn’t give to figure out how those work.”  


“Magic, probably. He cut his hand off once in front of me, but has it back in perfect order now.”  


“Well, that is pretty much that. El Oso is now being led away to a jail cell that will crumble by next week.”  


“Jeez, I keep telling you Peps, if you started up your villianly stuff again you would be able to take down these heros and be on top in no time!” Django reached back to his guitar, starting to pluck idly at it as Diego gave a hum, looking back to the stars. He wasn't about to comment on that. He knew he could take the city for his own if he wanted. Years of observing, planning, and learning more about who, and what, he was told as much. But the desire for such position and power no longer fueled him.  


“ I've been working on your request by the way.” Diego looked over to the skeletal man next to him, “ I think I am close to cracking a formula, but I need to do a few more tests before I am confident enough that it will not harm you, or worse leave you in a form you do not want.”  


Django stopped plucking, returning the gaze to his friend’s eyes before giving a smirk.  


“Rather timely, Peps. Think you can finish it before next month?”  


“I’ll do you one better,” Diego swung his legs around, standing up and smiling down at the skeleton, “ I’ll have your human form by next week.”


	2. Chapter 2

In a cavern deep below the city, he worked. He had made his home here, carving it out from the rock face and decorating it with stringed lights, pretty cloths, and furniture he and Seirgo stole. He was proud of what he built, what he could create and sustain in the cave that no one but him and his friends knew about. He felt joy when his house was added to by anyone he allowed to visit, from the paintings that Zoe did on the side of the house of landscapes, to the beautiful tapestry of a jellyfish that Django hung up inside the living room. He was most proud of the peach tree that rested in the middle of the make-shift yard that stretched between the house and an underground river Diego forced into existence. 

The peach tree was a gift from Siergo, well the bag of peaches he gave Diego was. But the knowledge that Siergo needed to return to Italy for an extended time was hard on the cyborg. With the last of his peaches he decided to try to make the gift last longer, planting it in the soil outside and soon enough the tree towered tall in the cavern. No need for actual sunlight, only Diego’s care was enough for it to thrive. 

And now in his safe haven, his home of only his and his alone, Diego worked in his lab to make a chemical that would be able to produce not only flesh, but an entire human system around a living skeleton. This would be on a whole new level of science, but the cyborg had no doubt in his abilities to do so. All he had to do was add a few more simple ingredients and it would be complete, and Django would finally be able to join him and Zoe in civilization. How easy it is to take that simple privilege for granite.

Of course, after everything is set and ready, Django himself will have to go through testing. The sudden gain of a nerve system could easily take a number on him, and the taste of food as well as the ability to breath would be something else entirely for someone who was born a skeleton and never had been anything else. Diego figured that he could just set up some small samples of basic tastes like sweet and salty, then expand further into actual meals. It will be a slow process, but one worth wild in the end to give Django a way to experience pleasures the cyborg once overlooked himself. He was surprised with how sad he felt when he first learned Django had never seen a movie in theaters before, or eaten at a restaurant. 

“ I heard of this all you can eat noodle bar thing?” Django said to him on the skyscraper roof one Tuesday night. “Like, you go and get your noodles and your fixins and stuff and they cook it right in front of you on this big grill?” 

“ I know the place you're talking about. Altan Noodle Bar, right? If you never have been, we can go now, I am kinda hungry.” How foolish he felt saying that. One look at Django told him everything he needed to know. 

A few weeks after that a band Django loved was playing a show, but security was on top of their work and soon enough superheros were getting a free show while Django sat on the top of a nearby building wishing he could, for once, just be allowed to go where humans could. Diego felt horrible being able to go in by just a simple flip of his arm to look like a human limb and his robotic red eye turning into a pair of glasses. 

It was a week after that Django asked if he would be able to give him a human form in some way. He had nothing to give in return for something that would be as valuable as this, but he was hoping for some good. And how could Diego say no? Villains may be evil, horrible, monstrous people but they all still made choices, and Diego decided to make a choice. He didn’t have to watch his friend live a life without the simple pleasure of walking down the street with no one giving a care, and that was Django was to him, a friend. One he could trust, and one he knew would lay down his mystic guitar for him if it meant an ounce of suffering prevention on Diego’s side. 

Diego wasn't about to fail him, even if it meant picking up a knife from his kitchen and going to the lab. It was going far, at least for some, but to Diego it was just science as he drew the blade across his human palm and watched as the opal liquid bleed out from the cut and into a beaker. Finally, the mixture was complete…

and what Django didn't know wouldn’t hurt him.


End file.
